The Amesse Memorial Collection is located in the Strauss Health Science Library's first floor Information Commons area. The collection contains a leisure reading collection of novels, biographies, and nonfiction, as well as a selection of popular magazines. All materials in the collection are listed in the Strauss Library online catalog, Library Search.​

If you'd like to make a recommendation for the Amesse collection, click here for the library's suggest an item webform.

About the Amesse Family

The Amesse Memorial Collection is named in honor of three generations of Amesse family physicians. John W. Amesse, M.D., 1874-1949, graduated from the University of Michigan Department of Medicine and Surgery, Ann Arbor, in 1898. Dr. Amesse joined the Marine Hospital Corps (now the U.S. Public Health Service) and served in San Francisco's 1900 bubonic plague outbreak, as Quarantine Officer for the Philippines, as Immigration Officer at Seattle, Honolulu, and Ellis Island, in the New Orleans yellow fever epidemic, in a Marine Hospital in Illinois, and as a special U.S. representative in Costa Rica. After further preparation in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and Bellevue, Dr. Amesse moved to Denver. He served as a Delegate to and Vice-President of the American Medical Association and as President of the Colorado Medical Society. He helped found Colorado Blue Shield and became its first President. Dr. Amesse also helped organize Children's Hospital Colorado in Denver. He wrote extensively and participated in many successful Denver civic enterprises.

John H. Amesse, M.D., 1915-1971, was a native of Denver. After graduating from the University of Colorado Medical School in 1941, Dr. Amesse quickly distinguished himself in both his profession and his community. He served in World War II and then established a general practice in Denver. Active in many medical and civic associations, he served as President of the Colorado Academy of General Practice. He was awarded the Colorado Medical Society's Robbins Award for Community Service, the Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Colorado award in 1956, and the first award of the UCHSC Department of Pediatrics "for outstanding contributions to the children of Colorado." A member of the Denver Board of Education from 1966 to 1971, his service to education for the children of Denver was commemorated by the dedication of the John H. Amesse Elementary School in 1974.

John C. Amesse, M.D., 1942-1968, died in a tragic mountain climbing accident in the Flatirons west of Boulder two days before he was to graduate from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. A merit scholar at East High School in Denver, he received his bachelor's degree from Princeton in 1964. He shared his medical skills as a medic with Outward Bound and had planned to take an internship at the University of Utah to be close to the mountains he loved.

Because of John's love of books, this reading room is dedicated to him and to his family. The collection was established with books from John's personal collection. Additional items are purchased from the Amesse Memorial Fund. Each book in the collection bears a bookplate designed by Eleanor Benson and printed by Frederic Pannebaker, friends of the Amesse family.

We hope this space provides a retreat from the hectic world of medicine, and, in so doing, keeps alive the memory and spirit of the Amesse family physicians.